EVERETT — Northbound I-5 is scheduled to close tonight at 112th Street SE in south Everett so seven 38-ton bridge girders can be hoisted into place.
State work crews plan to direct traffic to get off the freeway at 128th Street SE. The closure is scheduled from 11:30 tonight to 7:30 a.m. Sunday. Detouring traffic will be sent to Highway 527 but drivers can also use Highway 99.
Traffic crews will also close 112th Street SE above I-5 tonight, said Amir Ahmadi, the state’s project engineer. That closure will occur from 11 p.m. until 7:30 a.m. Sunday. A signed detour is planned.
The girders will support the second half of a new, wider 112th Street SE bridge over the freeway, Ahmadi said.
The work is part of a $41 million Sound Transit and city of Everett effort to widen 112th Street SE and build a park-and-ride in the middle of the freeway just north of 112th Street SE. The hope is to open the park-and-ride by September.
“It’s been a good project,” Ahmadi said. “We’ve been proceeding fairly well. The project is way ahead of schedule.”
Buses and carpools will be able to access the 400-stall park-and-ride directly from new I-5 carpool lanes that are being extended north to the Snohomish River. Local traffic will be able to access the lot from a ramp off 112th Street SE.
The easy access to the carpool lane is expected to shave key minutes off the commute into King County, said Bruce Gray, a spokesman for Sound Transit. He said it will work well with other direct-access ramps on I-5, including to the Lynnwood Transit Center and the Ash Way park-and-ride. Later this year, a direct-access ramp is scheduled to open at Broadway and I-5 in Everett.
“For transit and carpoolers, this is another piece of the puzzle to try to give those folks a faster way to and from work,” Gray said.
Much of the park-and-ride work is finished, with a bit of paving, landscaping and erecting bus shelters among the last things that need to be done, Ahmadi said.
A similar road closure is expected at the end of January on southbound I-5 so the last bridge girders can be put in place.
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